I'm a little disgusted with my own kids' elementary school, but before I 
start raising cain over there, I want to have a few real facts from other 
areas of the country. I should also mention that my girls are in 5th grade 
and 4th grade.
Every week, my children are taken to the school library for a 25 minute 
"lesson". However, I'm not seeing any "lessons" taking place. I asked my 
girls, "how are books shelved in the library?" Answer: alphabetically. 
"What's the Dewey Decimal System?" No response. "How do you find books in the 
library on a certain subject?" Answer: Ask you, the library lady or my 
teacher. "What's a card catalog?" (Yes they still have those in the school.) 
"Gee, Mom I don't know." "How do you look up a book on the computer." Blank 
looks. My final question: "Then, what is it that you *do* when you go to the 
library in school?" "Mrs. A reads us a story and then we look for books."
I am amazed, flabbergasted, shocked, upset, stunned. Not only are my children 
missing out on Music, Art, and PE specialists that I had as a child in 
elementary school. But they also can't find their way around the library. I 
can teach them music - they are both taking piano from me, and they do have a 
5th grade band program. They are taking dance/gymnastics so they get both PE 
and another form of Art. But library is now relegated to "story and check out 
books"?????
When do other schools introduce "how to find things in the library" in your 
curriculum? Is it done by the classroom teacher or the library specialist? 
(Do you even have library specialists? Ours is a full-time aide.) Am I right 
to want to raise cain and expect that by the end of 5th grade, my daughter 
should be comfortable in finding books in the library? I remember this as 
being an upper elementary level skill - but since I have only taught 1 year 
in the upper elementary, I may be wrong. (When I taught 2nd grade, my 
students learned that books were fiction and non-fiction, fictions were 
shelved alphabetically and non-fictions by subject and number.)
                                 -donna
--- GEcho 1.00
---------------